


Painted Into My Arms

by Sora_Writes



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Reader's Choice - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-17
Updated: 2018-03-17
Packaged: 2019-04-01 11:12:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13997055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sora_Writes/pseuds/Sora_Writes
Summary: !!!IMPORTANT!!! This story is dependent on the commenters who get to fill in the path from point A to B!!!It had been an awful day, like, more so than usual, even for Nathaniel’s really low standard. He was used to having bad days—a good or even just okay day was extremely rare and usually didn’t last long.The best example had to be his time as the Evil Illustrator. Chloe smashed his dreams in front of everyone, even the girl he had loved for years, Marinette, but he’d been given powers. He showed restraint many of the other akumatized victims hadn’t in just messing with Chloe and not trying to kill or get rid of anyone and had managed to get a date with Marinette on his birthday no less! He had used his powers to make it romantic and managed to stand his ground well enough against Hawkmoth to finish the date…until Chat Noir ruined it and Marinette betrayed him. It was like the light he had before that was just smashed in one fell swoop. His heart wasn’t just broken, it was smashed into the ground and drug through the mud.Despite everything, though…it was still the best day of his life. Which was…sad to say the least.





	Painted Into My Arms

It had been an awful day, like, more so than usual, even for Nathaniel’s really low standard. He was used to having bad days—a good or even just okay day was extremely rare and usually didn’t last long.

 

The best example had to be his time as the Evil Illustrator. Chloe smashed his dreams in front of everyone, even the girl he had loved for years, Marinette, but he’d been given powers. He showed restraint many of the other akumatized victims hadn’t in just messing with Chloe and not trying to kill or get rid of anyone and had managed to get a date with Marinette on his birthday no less! He had used his powers to make it romantic and managed to stand his ground well enough against Hawkmoth to finish the date…until Chat Noir ruined it and Marinette betrayed him. It was like the light he had before that was just smashed in one fell swoop. His heart wasn’t just broken, it was smashed into the ground and drug through the mud.

 

Despite everything, though…it was still the best day of his life. Which was…sad to say the least.

 

Back to today, however, it started with him waking up late, since he left his phone on the coffee table downstairs, and getting to school late, unlike Marinette or Adrien though, he was sent to the principal’s office as she seemed to not be in a good mood today. After that, he returned to class only to realize that his friends, Rose and Juleka, were too absorbed in making sure to keep distance between one another to even acknowledge he was there. They were obviously having one of their rare fights. It happens sometimes, so he didn’t care…well, not too much. He knew that they’d make up before the day was over like always. Instead he pulled out his sketchpad, planning to just draw off his feelings, but that didn’t go well either as he soon discovered that his copic marker had exploded, ruining his sketchbook. Now he couldn’t draw…and his comic drafts he’d been working on for weeks were ruined.

 

Great. He just ended up tossing it in transition since it was now useless to him.

 

He was stuck listening to his teachers until lunch break due to Rose and Juleka fighting and not talking to each other much less him. He had hurried home and grabbed a new drawing pad, unfortunately his larger one. However, it wasn’t as simple as he would have liked. Of course, his mother just had to be home the one day in forever he was late, and the principle had called. She yelled and berated him harshly in a way where he knew his father must have done the same to her earlier. This was common, his mother was carefree until his father would reprimand her for being an offal mother then she’d turn and reprimand him for being a terrible son. She’d then apologize the next day and give him some money for art supplies then proceed to just care about her friends again until the process repeated.

 

So, like normal, he just let her get it out, avoided his eyes from her, and just ignored it the best he could. He had hoped she’d finish quickly and he’d have time to draw at least a sketch of something to just clear his mind and allow himself to breathe, but there was still no luck. By the time she finished, he had to run to school and barely made it before the bell. Even at school, he still couldn’t draw as he was in Ms. Mendeleiev’s class and refused to draw in her class after the Evil Illustrator.

 

So, Nathaniel had to wait until classes were over and he decided to go to his favorite place, the Eiffel Tower. He took the elevator up and then managed to climb a bit further up. He tossed his bag up and then stood on the railing, lifting himself up, once he got to his favorite ledge, he sat down, pulling out his sketch pad and oil pastels out. He looked out over the city, deciding what area he wanted to capture then pulled his hair back into a ponytail to start drawing immediately, letting the wind blow around him. He was always most at peace here…

 

He was there drawing for hours, capturing the city perfectly even as night fell. He was almost done with the shading when—

 

“Heads up!”

 

Nathaniel didn’t even get the chance to look up as Chat Noir _literally_ landed on his drawing pad. He didn’t even know how to react at first…

 

Well, he really didn’t have time to react as Chat Noir launched himself off the pad with a: “thanks for the assist!” And he was gone as quick as he appeared, an ugly footprint smackdab in the middle of his artwork. That frustrated Nathaniel so much that he just let go of his drawing pad, his fingers even twitching as he held in his rage and the scream that had been building inside all day. He glared over to where Chat Noir launched to, noticing that he and Ladybug were fighting a seemingly wolf-themed akuma, so the cat-themed hero must have been literally tossed aside…again. Really, if it wasn’t for Ladybug Nathaniel doubted that Chat Noir could make it out of a fight without a broken bone or worse…

 

Nathaniel growled and just let his whole pad fall in his frustration he was just…done with today, and with that, he climbed down and just headed home, keeping his scream inside that wanted to come out. He hurried to his room, putting headphones on, he unlocked his phone to pick his playlist, absentmindedly noticing a text from Rose that said she and Juleka made up and were sorry for not hanging out with him that day. He didn’t give a reply as he flopped onto his bed, willing himself to just sleep the terrible day off.

 

* * *

 

 

Nathaniel jerked awake from his mother’s yelling, informing him he was late for school and his phone was annoyingly going off on the coffee table downstairs. Again?! He panicked and quickly gathered his things before rushing out. He was sure he went to sleep with the darn phone in bed with him—didn’t he listen to music before he fell asleep?!

 

This time, he took a shortcut and ran as fast as he could. However, despite this he was late still and sent to the principle again. Who oddly gave him his “first” warning, again, but he counted it as a blessing and headed to his class, sitting in his usual spot. He sat and looked to his two friends to greet them, but paused when he noticed Rose and Juleka turned slightly so they were facing away from one another. He found it odd, were they fighting again? That was odd, usually them fighting was rare and never happened again right after the initial fight. Their fights were normally spread out by two months of time, at _least_ … So, he decided to ask Rose during transition.

 

That wouldn’t be happening for another hour and a half though. So, for now, he’d just take notes and doodle in the notebook until he could by another sketchbook after school. He opened his bookbag and once again froze as he saw the familiar book. It couldn’t be…

 

Nathaniel quickly pulled it out and opened it, growing even more confused as he found it was indeed the sketchbook he tossed yesterday, in fact, it was still ruined by his copic markers in the exact same spots. What was this…? Déjà vu didn’t even fit this, this was so much more… He was forced to brush it aside as the teacher called on him and the day continued, however he kept it on the backburner in his mind as the day continued and he did the same as he had done before.

 

He had asked Rose what happened during transition only for her to say she didn’t want to talk about it and when he tried to say he thought they made up last night she denied it. Nathaniel went to show her the text he remembered getting last night, but it wasn’t there, confusing him and testing the upset girl’s patience as she just walked away.

 

This time, when night fell, and he was on the tower, he wasn’t even mad as Chat Noir used his sketchpad as a launching pad. This time he just slowly came down and walked home where he kicked off his shoes and laid down, the more he thought about today the sicker he felt, so he decided to just go to sleep again after reading the same message from Rose saying her and Juleka made up.

 

After tonight…everything would be normal again…

 

* * *

 

 

Or not.

 

Nathaniel lived through the exact same day three more times and realized that he was in some kind of endless loop and no one else seemed to notice it but him… What, was he stuck in that dumb movie: Groundhog Day?! Was he supposed to do something to stop it? What was he supposed to do? Maybe he’d just have to make it the best possible day? What could go wrong?

 

Other than repeating the day again.

 

So, that night Nathaniel made a mental checklist of everything that went wrong on this repeating day:

⬜ Keep mom from getting mad over being late

⬜ Showing up to class late

⬜ Getting Rose and Juleka to make up before lunch

⬜ Prevent his copic markers from exploding on his sketchbook

⬜ Keep Chat Noir from ruining his drawing

 

It was only five things, so it should be simple!

 

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys, as said in the summary this story is controlled by you guys. I have only point A and B planned, how Nathaniel gets through these problems is up to you guys, so don't forget to comment suggestions!
> 
> RATING WILL CHANGE AS I GO ALONG


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